If you want to learn about why human welfare overall has gone up so much over time you should
read The Great Escape: Health Wealth and the Origins of Inequality.--Bill Gates There is
nobody better than Angus Deaton to explain why our lives are longer healthier and more
prosperous than those of our great-grandparents. The story he tells is much more than an
inexorable march of progress--it has also been unequal uneven and incomplete and at each
step politics has played a defining role. This is a must-read for anybody interested in the
wealth and health of nations.--Daron Acemoglu coauthor of Why Nations Fail At once engaging
and compassionate this is an uplifting story by a major scholar.--Paul Collier author of The
Bottom Billion Magisterial and superb.--William Easterly author of The White Man's Burden The
Great Escape tells the two biggest stories in history: how humanity got healthy and wealthy
and why some people got so much healthier and wealthier than others. Angus Deaton one of the
world's leading development economists takes us on an extraordinary journey--from an age when
almost everyone was poor and sick to one where most people have escaped these evils--and he
tells us how the billion still trapped in extreme poverty can join in this great escape.
Everyone who wants to understand the twenty-first century should read this book.--Ian Morris
author of Why the West Rules--for Now Deaton's account of global advances in health is
magisterial. It is especially convincing in disentangling economic progress from technological
growth as sources of health improvements. A very big story this book should affect the way we
think about human development and the role of science and science-based government programs.
The language is modest and graceful the use of evidence compelling and the illustrations
highly attractive.--Samuel Preston University of Pennsylvania This factual sober and very
timely book deals with issues surrounding the higher incomes and longer lives enjoyed by an
increasing proportion of the world's population. It assesses improvements in conditions that
would have seemed almost a fantasy for people living only a few generations ago. Deaton's
arguments written in an elegant and accessible style are powerful and challenge conventional
opinions.--Branko Milanovic author of The Haves and the Have-Nots This splendid book discusses
how in the last two hundred fifty years large numbers of people have achieved levels of
well-being that were previously available only to a few individuals and how this achievement
has given rise to equally unprecedented inequalities. Unique in its focus and scope
exceptional knowledge and coherence and careful argumentation The Great Escape is highly
illuminating and a delight to read.--Thomas Pogge Yale University
